1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to computer communications, and, more particularly, to secure communications between remote computers.
2. Description of the Related Art
Symmetric cryptographic schemes (or algorithms), in which encryption and decryption use the same key, are well known in the art and have several desirable characteristics such as ease of key management and lower computational requirements as compared to asymmetric cryptographic schemes.
Many current security mechanisms employ asymmetric cryptographic schemes, such as the public key systems with their associated Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) systems and are known in the art. However, the PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) system of the related art includes specific costs associated with creating and maintaining this infrastructure. Examples of these costs include key distribution, management and storage.
The asymmetric encryption/decryption algorithms used by the PKI systems involve relatively complex and time-consuming computations. Hence they are not well suited for economical and compact mobile computing devices on which only limited computing resources and battery power are available.
Symmetric algorithms consume substantially less computing power than asymmetric encryptions and decryptions. Communicating parties in symmetric cryptographic systems typically share the same key, which is then used by them as a parameter to encrypt and decrypt the message data.